AMD PowerTune

AMD PowerTune is a trademark for a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies built into some AMDGPUs and APUs that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed (to different P-states) by software. This allows the processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the operation being performed, while minimizing power draw, heat generation and noise avoidance. AMD PowerTune aims to solve thermal design power and performance constraints.[1]

Besides the reduced energy consumption, AMD PowerTune helps to lower the noise levels created by the cooling in desktop computers, and extends battery life in mobile devices. AMD PowerTune is the successor to AMD PowerPlay.[2]

Support for "PowerPlay" was added to the Linux kernel driver "amdgpu" on November, 11 2015.[3]

As a lecture from CCC in 2014 shows, AMD's x86-64 SMU firmware is executed on some LatticeMico32 and PowerTune was modeled using Matlab.[4] This is similar to Nvidia's PDAEMON, the RTOS responsible for power on their GPUs.[5]

^To feed more than two displays, the additional panels must have native DisplayPort support.[19] Alternatively active DisplayPort-to-DVI/HDMI/VGA adapters can be employed.

^ abTo play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.

^The Radeon 100 Series has programmable pixel shaders, but do not fully comply with DirectX 8 or Pixel Shader 1.0. See article on R100's pixel shaders.

^These series do not fully comply with OpenGL 2+ as the hardware does not support all types of non power of two (NPOT) textures.

^OpenGL 4+ compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders and these are emulated on some TeraScale chips using 32-bit hardware.

^ abThe UVD and VCE were replaced by the Video Core Next (VCN) ASIC in the Raven Ridge APU implementation of Vega.

^ abTo play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.

^More displays may be supported with native DisplayPort connections, or splitting the maximum resolution between multiple monitors with active converters.